Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 16:48:32 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: Clay-colored-Sparrow, Fish Crows MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit We (Dot Gustafson, Gail Frantz, and Keith Costley and me) finally went down to Kinder Farm Park, AA County, to see the Clay-colored Sparrow. We found it easily, singing away at it's prescribed location near bluebird box #9. We were generally pretty amazed at the amount of bird activity there at this generally dead time of year: lots of Indigo Buntings, scads of Bluebirds, several Blue Grosbeaks, numerous orioles, mainly Baltimore, and surprising numbers of passing raptors, Red-shoulders, Red-tails, and Osprey. And there is a lot more park that we didn't see, especially the more wooded sections and ponds. We definitely want to go back. As for directions, we would modify parts of the previous directions we were following, as emphasized in capitals: To reach Kinder Farm Park, exit Rte. 97 and get on Benfield Blvd. going towards Severna Park. Go 2.3 miles to a left at the stoplight for Jumper's Hole Rd.. Go left here and continue through a couple stoplights to a left on Kinder Farm Park Rd. at 1.2 mi. (NOT KINDER ROAD). To find the area where the Clay-colored Sparrow has been seen, continue along Kinder Farm Park Rd. 0.5 mi to the end. Park in the parking lot by the pavilion marked "River Birch Pavilion". Take the gated gravel road that goes right from the end of Kinder Farm Park Rd. and make a left after 200 ft on the paved hiking/biking trail. FOLLOW THIS ABOUT 0.3 MILE (not 0.2 mile), BEYOND A BEND IN THE PATH to the first obvious gravel trail to the left (another gravel trail takes off to the right). Go down this trail BEARING RIGHT and make an immediate right on a mowed grass path. Follow this 100 ft to where bluebird box #9 is seen on your right. Look for the sparrow singing from bushes around the trail between box #9 and box #8 a little farther along. --------------------- On the subject of Fish Crows in western Maryland, I have seen/heard them in every Maryland County except Garrett . Surprisingly, I have found Washington County west of Hagerstown, often has large flocks of them at certain times of year (fall and early spring as recall), doing the classic, very nasal Uh-Oh call, as opposed to 3 less-nasal notes, which are more ambiguous. I don't think a whole flock would be doing imitations of another species. Steve Sanford tanager@bcpl.net Randallstown MD Baltimore County http://www.geocities.com/bfbooby/index.html ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================